Comic Relief

Deep within the heart of the Art District on Santa Fe, you’ll find a home for the kind of art that’s usually displayed behind lurid four-color covers and on the funny pages. If you prefer that to yet another wall of abstract swirls, Zac Conley’s Hall of Justice comic and entertainment art gallery is where you want to be on First Friday. This month, the gallery will feature the work of Lonnie MF Allen, a local artist with a flair for illustrating the weird incidents of daily life.

“I hate this term, but I haven’t found one that describes it more accurately: It’s slice-of-life,” Allen says. “I make comics as a reflection of ideas and life the way that I see it. They’re somewhat gag strips, playing on puns and stuff like that, because I believe in that kind of higher form of humor.”

Allen, a fixture on the local comics scene who helped relaunch the city’s Drink & Draw program in 2012, will be joined by a dozen of Denver’s comic artists — including some Drink & Draw regulars. The gallery will also feature its standing collection of comics and entertainment art when the show opens with a free reception tonight at 6 p.m. at the Hall of Justice, 841 Santa Fe Drive. For more information, visit facebook.com/HOJGallery, and see more of Allen’s art at lonniemf.tumblr.com.
Fri., Aug. 1, 6-9 p.m., 2014